Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy cover everything you need to know about public speaking, from learning how not to burst into flames from nervousness to identifying speaking opportunities to actually giving your talk.

This chapter is from the book

Maybe it's because we both have an obsessive need to be the center of attention, but we live for speaking in public.

Understandably, this gets a lot of weird looks and comments from our friends, because most people hate public speaking. Hate, hate, hate it with a fiery hot passion reserved only for snakes, tobacco executives, and Commies. (Our apologies to any snakes who may be reading this book.)

We speak in public for three reasons. First, public speaking is essential to building our brand and establishing our credibility. If we want companies and colleagues to realize we're experts in our field, we need to find ways to share that expertise with others. When we are seen as experts in our field, bigger clients are more willing to hire us for larger fees.

Second, we enjoy sharing knowledge with large groups of people. A big focus for Kyle's company is providing social media training; Erik taught public speaking for three years at the college level, and he very nearly went into education. So we both share a teacher's heart. (Kyle keeps it in a jar under his bed.)

Third, we like public speaking because people pay speakers to share their wisdom and knowledge. We were staggered to learn that organizations pay someone anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars to come in and tell their people about stuff they do for a living. It could be a keynote at a conference, a motivational speaker at a national sales meeting, or leading a day-long seminar, but professional public speakers are well-paid to talk about what they do for a living, and to teach those skills to other people.

Think about what you do right now. Whether you're a purchasing agent, a marketing coordinator, a chef, or a license branch manager, you've probably found several shortcuts that help you do your job better, or you have some thoughts on the direction of your particular industry. Now imagine if someone handed you a check for, say, $2,000 to talk for an hour to a group of your colleagues about these shortcuts or thoughts.

Staggering.

You've probably thought about a number of ways you can do your job better. You likely think that if you had a chance to share this knowledge, your job, your company, or your industry would be a good and happy place. The fact that you bought this book is proof of that: You want to learn how to share knowledge and thus create or grow your personal brand.

But, although it seems like getting $2,000—or whatever you charge—for an hour's worth of work is the ideal job, you're not really getting $2,000 for a single hour. You're getting $2,000 for the hour you speak, the hours you prepare, the weeks and months you've spent writing about your topic, and the years you spent learning your craft. It only works out to a few pennies an hour, but it's $2,000 more than your nonspeaking colleagues are going to get for the same amount of work.

Case Study: Hazel Walker, The Queen of Networking

Hazel is a good friend of ours, and she's the Queen of Networking. She owns the Indiana franchise of Business Network International, and she's a highly sought after speaker. We won't say how much she earns speaking each year, but she has a winter Lexus and a summer Lexus. We both look up to her for inspiration on how to grow our own speaking careers, so we're glad to give her a little space here to tell us how she got started.

I was forced to learn to be a public speaker. I believe that you must learn more to earn more, and speaking was one of those things I had to learn.

It became clear to me after I bought my BNI franchise that I was going to do more and more speaking. Even if it was only in front of my BNI chapters, it was important that I present my very best self. So the first thing I did was join a local Toastmasters group. Toastmasters is all about learning how to speak well—the technical aspects of speaking, and helping you overcome bad habits—which is what I needed. Toastmasters is where I honed my skills.

To learn and practice, I began taking free speaking engagements around town; then I started landing small paid speaking engagements. Once that started happening, I decided it was time to join the National Speakers Association since I knew that I wanted to be in the business of professional speaking.

ALL of my business comes to me by referral. I turn to my international network and ask for referrals, I go to my local network and ask for referrals, and I ask my clients for referrals. I have also landed several clients from my Linkedin account and one or two from my Twitter account.

Today I do not speak for free. I ask everyone I speak for to at least make a donation to my favorite charity. This allows me to help my charity of choice, allows me to help those who want me to speak, and shows respect for my profession.

The most important thing about being a good speaker is being GOOD at it. Learn what you need to learn to be speak effectively.

Connect with your audience. I rarely ever use presentation software since it does not really connect to the people there to hear you. Get connected to the people who organize and attend; ask for referrals.

If you speak for free, ask the organizers to write you a testimonial and put it on your LinkedIn account.